Pete in Ghana Week 13

Pete came to visit for his Thanksgiving break, which was . Unfortunately for this blog, he took about half the pictures this week which I do not have.

Week 13 (AKA the week with Pete) – November 16 - 22

Day 80 – Super disappointed in Pete's cancelled flight, but had time to just putter around and walked and practices multiplication with two of the nicest 2^nd graders.

Day 81 – Pete's here! And a successful first venture into Accra to watch a movie and buy catsup.

Day 82 – Travelling in the trotro and Pete's first take-out food handed through the window of the moving bus. Small tour around Torkor where we ran into at least a dozen of my students. Took him to my little family bar and the local restaurant.

Monkeys!

Day 83 – Breakfast of Waatky in a bag on the way to show Pete the school. It was still kind of surreal having my US life meet my Ghana life. Then off to get bikes and bike to Tafi Atome. This time it was just the two of us and we had to hike a ways into the forest. Unlike last time too, the monkeys actually jumped on me. A totally unplanned but wonderful stop by Kudzra where we ran into a student of mine and tons of his friends by the river. Just too tempted by the bamboo high ump set up, Pete and I both jumped in and saw, with the kids. Favorite quote of the day, Duncan asking “why is he scared of the ground?” I realized he was asking why Pete was walking gingerly on the rocky beach when barefoot. Kids here are so often barefoot the idea of tender soles was new. Late lunch at my favorite spot and planning the rest of the trip.



You can kinda see pete's little head in the water



Day 84 – Demonstrating how the easy is difficult and the difficult is easy here. While it is harder here to do some basic things like grocery shop, pay bills, or print something somehow renting a motorcycle was super easy. I made a taxi driver friend and he knew a person and took us there, gave him 50 bucks, no questions or proof of knowing how to ride a bike and we were off. Even getting stopped at a police barricade, which I was a bit worried about, was a totally pleasant experience. They were very nice, just asked if we had a license and we said yes and they did not even want to look at it or try to hassle us for a bribe like they do to others sometimes. The days activity was visiting Likpe Todome where they had ancestral caves. After a hot hike on a cattle road so no shade we got to the top of the mountains with the caves. It was pretty cool seeing where hundreds of people lived, slept, kept prisoners and chief’s room. One of the deeper caves was totally full of bats that would fly around super close to our faces when we shone a light at them. Back to Hohoe where Pete found some awesome African fabric covered Chuck Taylors that they made in his size overnight. Then a sweet encounter at a drinking spot where about 6 kids surrounded us but one was just obsessed with Pete's legs and was petting and holding onto his knees for a while.

Day 85 – Back up the mountain to the Wli Falls, where we had the same tour guy I had about 3 months earlier. We also wanted to do another hike about an hour away that afternoon so we only went to the bottom falls but it was still a fun shorter hike and swim into the pool beneath the falls which were so strong it was hard to get very close with the water stinging our faces. Back on our bike and off to Biakpa, my favorite place in Ghana so far. We went on a hike through the dense jungle here where we got to swim in the second waterfall of the day. This one was smaller so easier to get right under it. Back to the hotel for a nice dinner and early to bed to get up to do day 4 of hiking/biking.

Day 86 – Morning hike across the valley to mount Gemi and the village of Afadjato. Again a wonderful hike although the nearby road construction dampened the peaceful sounds of nature. This made our total activities total in 3 days about 3 hours of cycling and 12 hours of hiking, 3 places where we swam,  and Pete having to drive the motorbike in-between all our activities. It was not until about 1 in the afternoon coming back from the morning hike that Pete mentioned something about Thanksgiving, I totally forgot it was. Back home to drop the bike, realize the power was off and go to plan B. We had our Thanksgiving dinner of a fishtail with rice for Pete and chicken neck stew with Banku for me. We did get a festive box of wine to drink with dinner and while we watched Battleship of Pete's computer to relax after a lot of time on our feet and in the sun.